


"That's so sad, Alexa play Deathpacito."

by IceBreeze



Category: Bleach
Genre: (But like none of them know they're in a game), (Just for Aizen/Kisuke), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Otome Game AU, Coyote Starrk and Unohana Retsu are Siblings, God Coyote Starrk, God Unohana Retsu, Lovers to enemies to lovers, M/M, Slow Burn, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25018855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBreeze/pseuds/IceBreeze
Summary: Retsu has a brother, and he is a tragedy. Trapped alone in this place with neither light or warmth, in this prison where the only noise is the sound of his breaths and the pain that never eases. He is alone, buried in a tomb not built for Him, and no matter how much She searches, no matter what She tries, Retsu is unable to save Him.Retsu has a brother, and He is alone, and so He is lonely. He is sorrowful, and there is only so long a person can sleep before they start to wish they would never have to wake up again.Retsu has a brother. She loves Him more than anything in the world and She has failed him even more so. She loves him, and yet She couldnt save Him; not then, not now, not ever.But perhaps His murderers could.Starrk is a God who became a prisoner who became a dead man. His sister does not stan this, and invests in some time travel. After 219 failures to save him, she decides to recruit some outside help.And if doing so gets rid of a thorn in her side then, well. Two birds, one stone.(Or: A not-quite-an-otome game au where Starrk gets a fivesome).
Relationships: Aizen Sousuke/Kurosaki Ichigo/Kyouraku Shunsui/Coyote Starrk/Urahara Kisuke, Coyote Starrk & Unohana Retsu, Lilynette Gingerbuck & Coyote Starrk, Shihouin Yoruichi & Urahara Kisuke
Kudos: 32





	"That's so sad, Alexa play Deathpacito."

**Author's Note:**

> this is my fic for the polyship rarepair event run by a server i'm in!! Thank you for helping me get Starrk the harem he deserves.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this more than Starrk did!!!

This story starts with the world.

It is not our world, but is _a_ world. It is a world in the story, a world where people live and breathe magic like we do air, where there are staircases into the night sky and the ocean sings songs with the birds. A world where some people are born mundane and some are born heroes, where some are born with power nestled in their souls and threads of destiny theirs for the taking, where magic is something that is easy to see but harder to learn.

It is a world that began as a husk. It began as nothing more than the rock it was made of and the magic in the atmosphere, a world where nothing lived and nothing died because it was just a lump. It had nothing. It was nothing. It was empty and it was lifeless and it was lonely.

This is a story about a lonely world in a universe too big for it.

It was a world that had nothing until, one day, a seed was planted. It was a very special seed, one made of magic itself, and that seed grew. The seed grew, and with it so did the world, until the world was big and bright and wonderous. The seed grew into a flower into a tree into a God, and through Him, the world came alive.

This story starts with a world, but more importantly that, it starts with a God.

He is a God who is older than time and more powerful still, a God who is as gentle as He is vast. He is a God whose touch brings life as easily as it takes it away, a God whose tears make the rain and whose song makes the wing. He is a God with light in His veins and shadows at His feet, a God who holds the universe in His soul and the world in His hands. He is a God who brought life to a world that had none, who created all that there is and all that there will ever be, a God who brings beginnings and endings and the narrative that winds its way inbetween.

This story starts with the God of Life and Death and Everything Inbetween.

He is a God who is as peaceful as He is powerful, a God who loves quickly and loves deeply, a God who has a heart too big for one creature to hold. He is a God who cares for this world that is like His child, who loves it with all the kindness He has to offer. He is a God who has made Gods and humans and spirits alike, and has nurtured them. He is a God who watched His children ruin themselves, who watched civilisations rise and fall and rise and fall with tears on His cheeks and grief in His heart, a God who has torn Himself to the ground trying to help them and yet still not been able to stop their folly. He is a God who loves, and so He is a God who has lost.

This story starts with a God, and His name is Coyote Starrk.

But the thing is, humans are fools; the thing is, Gods are a relic long forgotten. The thing is, demons are not. Demons exist in the world, spreading chaos and destruction, and so sometimes, a God gets mistaken for a human. Sometimes, there is a God who thrives in the thrill of fighting, a God who has gotten involved in one too many battles, and so the rumours spread that there is a Demon. The rumours spread of a Demon with golden eyes and pointed ears, a Demon with dark hair and the kind of power that could tear down kingdoms. The rumours spread of a Demon that is actually a God, and so the people begin to send Demon Hunters to chase them down.

This is a story where a God gets mistaken for a Demon, and that God is not Starrk.

It is, however, His sister. It is His dearest family, the God of Love, Violence, and Time. It is the only one to stand at His side throughout this life too long to understand. And if there is one thing Starrk is, it is loyal; and if there is one thing He does, it is love.

And sometimes to love means to lose.

So one day, a Demon Hunter comes, and she finds what she is looking for: someone with sharp ears and golden eyes, with dark hair and the kind of power that could tear down Kingdoms. She finds a God that she believes is a Demon, but it is not the right one. It is not the Demon from the rumours, it is not the one who has spread destruction; she doesn’t find the Demon Who Dances In The Blood Of Humanity, but a brother who is willing to sacrifice Himself.

This is a story about the love between siblings, and what it means to take the fall for someone else.

The Demon Hunter comes, and she leaves again. The God is sealed away, imprisoned in a tomb that does not fit right and magic that was not meant to chain one such as Him. The sister returns, having been sent on an errand, and what She finds is a brother hurt; a brother lost; a brother buried. The sister returns, and Her screams shake the earth, Her grief brings down storms.

This is a story about a sister whose brother is somewhere She cannot reach, and a brother who can no longer comfort Her.

The God is alone in this place with neither light or warmth, in this prison where the only noise is the sound of his breaths and the pain that never eases. The God is alone, deprived of the only companionship He’s been able to rely on, and no matter how much She searches, no matter what She tries, His Sister is unable to find out how to rescue him. The God is alone, and so He is lonely. He is sorrowful, and there is only so long a person can sleep before they start to wish they would never have to wake up again.

This is a story about a God imprisoned, and the centuries He spent in a quiet nightmare.

The God is alone, but one day, He is not. One day, a child wanders in to His tomb, a child with His sister’s magic faint against her soul and eyes as bright as the sun that the God has mourned. One day, a child visits Him, and then she continues to do so. One day, a child becomes his friend, his family, and the God becomes a little less lonely.

This is a story about a God, and the child who makes Him a promise.

She makes Him a promise, and it is one she never gets to keep. She dies because of a human with ambition in their heart and malice in their smile; she is murdered by a man who hears her plea for help and sees an opportunity. She dies, and the God is once again left alone. She dies, and the human who killed her approaches the God, tries to twist and manipulate Him. She dies, and her murderer tries to use the God, but instead they crushed Him, sending Him tumbling down into despair. She dies, and the God breaks.

This is a story about a God who loved humans, and yet they did not love Him.

This is a story, and the God becomes the antagonist of it. He becomes the villain, a God intent on destroying the world, this being for whomst there was no Happy Ever After to be found. A God who turned on the world who cast Him out, who was forced into the role of a demon. A God who became an obstacle to be overcome, to be slain or imprisoned or worse, a curse that became so because of the people slaying Him. No matter what else changed, no matter what went on, no matter how many times this story was repeated, the only constant in it all was that the God always ended in despair.

This is a story, and it is a tragedy.

The Kingdom of Karakura is celebrating. The people are cheering, the Knights are parading, the King is waving, and everybody is smiling. It is a joyous day, the entire Kingdom alight with pride, and just like in every loop, just like in all loops, Retsu wants to burn them to the ground. She wants to kill them, to ruin them, to make them suffer and despair in the same way they made Her brother; in the same way they have made Her.

The Kingdom of Karakura is celebrating, and She hates them with all the heat of a supernova, with all the depth of a black hole.

The Kingdom of Karakura is celebrating, and what they are celebrating is the murder of Retsu’s brother.

“The demon has been slain!” they cry, as they have cried hundreds of times before. “The Hero has saved us all!”

They didn’t even bury the body. They left it there, on the ground where He’d died, another salt to the wound, another fist to the face. They’d already ruined Him over and over and over, had torn Him down until there was nothing left to tear, had treated Him like some kind of beast when He was the one to whom they owe their lives. The least they owed Him was to respect Him in death, and yet they couldn’t even do that.

They never do, in the loops where the Hero falls in love with the Murderer.

This will haunt them soon enough, when the world starts to crumble without its God to sustain it; when the world starts to die because the one who gave it life is no longer there. They will suffer, and they will die, and they will fade, and Retsu is glad for it. Glad that there is still some justice to be found, even in this hellscape. They tortured Her brother until there was nothing left of Him but grief and rage and anguish, and so they too will wither and rot with this world they took for granted.

They will all die, and they will die painfully, and they will deserve it.

Starrk would have been sad about this, if He was still around to feel. Even at His lowest point He was too kind; He would have destroyed the world, but He would have wanted it to be quick. He wouldn’t want there to be suffering, just an end. He would have ruined them, but He wouldn’t be cruel about. He would have tore the blighted world down and rebuilt it anew.

He would have given humanity a fresh start, right back from the beginning.

He was kind, so much more than these people deserved, but now He was gone and all that remained was the tree that had grown from His corpse.

He was the best of them, and Retsu had failed Him once again.

(“Everybody deserves a second chance,” He’d told Her once, back when She was still new to life, back in those happy days they had together. “It’s just that sometimes you need to give a person several second chances before it is enough.”

“But why,” She had said. “Humans are so- eugh. They’re so eugh. Most of them aren’t even good at fighting, and yet they swan around with such needless violence that it makes even _me_ feel sick.”

“Everyone has a capacity for kindness. I choose to believe in that, in their ability to do good, rather than their flaws.” He hums, and the bird that had been sitting on His shoulder returns it with a cry, launching itself to the sky. Starrk watches it go with a smile. “Humans are such brief creatures. They only have a scant few decades to learn things, which means they struggle more than we might. We have to be patient with them.”

“Don’t you get tired of being nice all the time? Don’t you ever just want to go apeshit?”

He laughed, ruffling Her hair with gentle hands and gentle eyes, and She leaned into the touch like a flower to the sun, like He was the heart and She the bloodcells, like He was her brother and She adored Him with every inch of Her being. “No, I think I’ll leave the apeshit to you. I’d rather sleep.”

“But if you’re so nice then people will hurt you. You’re easy to take advantage of.”

“I’d rather be hurt then dismiss someone who I could help.”

She frowned. “Then I’ll protect you, brother! You can be the nice sibling and I’ll fight anyone and everyone who tries to hurt you!”

“My hero,” Starrk had said, smiling at Her with the kind of warmth that would make any flame feel like ice in comparison, and Retsu had felt strong. She had felt unstoppable, like She and Her brother would be able to stand against anything. She had felt like She would be able to win any battle, if it was for Him.

She’d promised to protect Him, and in the end, She’d failed.

She’d failed two hundred and nineteen times).

“What use is being a God,” She said, to the brother who was no longer alive to hear Her, “if I can’t protect the one person I want to save.”

Oh, She’d tried. She’d tried over and over and over again, ever since that first timeline where things had ended up like something straight out of a nightmare, but no matter what She did, it was never enough. She’d tried two hundred and nineteen times, and yet something always went wrong, and Starrk ended up dead, imprisoned, or enslaved.

She’d tried everything, and She’d tried it repeatedly, but it was never enough.

Each timeline ended with Starrk ruined, and His ruination always came at the hands of those four bastards. Every timeline, even the ones where She’d managed to get Starrk and Lilynette safely away, those four came along and sent everything spiralling into Hell.

Every timeline, Starrk was ruined by the Hero, the King, the Traitor, and the Oracle.

She hated them, hated them more than anything else, and yet, she couldn’t even kill them to stop it. She’d tried it, once, in one of the earlier timelines; killed them all off one by one before the first day was even up, and then taken Starrk and Lilynette somewhere safe. It had ended with the Hero coming back from the dead and Starrk killing Himself.

She never tried that again.

If She could just go back further, if She could make it to a time before Starrk was sealed, then things would be fine. If She could just go back a few centuries ago, then She could save Him, but messing with time took a lot of power, even for Her. Two years was Her Limit, a rewind back to the week before Lilynette met Starrk. Two years; that was her restart point, how much time it took for everything to go wrong.

The same two years done two hundred and nineteen times, and every loop ended in despair.

There was a truth to be found here, and the truth was this: Retsu was not the one who could save Starrk.

Retsu was not able to save Her brother, but that did not mean He was unsavable.

“Perhaps,” She said, “someone else will have to do the saving for me.”

And then, the threads of an idea, the sprinkling of hope, a light to eyes that have grown dull. “And as luck would have it,” She said, looking at those four spots of light in the distance, those four souls who have given Her so much trouble, “I know the perfect people for it.”

She stood now, the wind picking up around Her, and smiled for the first time in years, patting the trunk of the tree that was cradling Starrk’s body.

“Yes,” she said. “Yes, this will work, Brother. It has to.”

And then, “I miss you.”

And then, “I love you.”

And then, quieter, around the lump in Her throat and the wetness on Her cheeks, “I’ll see you soon. I promise.”

And then She rewound time, and all of this was undone.

Retsu rewound time for the two hundred and twentieth time, and all this never happened.

This never happened, my dear reader, except for all the ways it did.

Once upon a time there was a God of Death and Life and All that was inbetween. He was a kind God, with a smile of summertime and ribs that cradled the world like it was His heart. He was the Father of all life, the backbone on which the world was built, and He walked, and He laughed, and He loved and loved and loved like it would never run out.

Once upon a time there was a God, and He had a sister. There were knives in Her smile, blood on Her hands, and when She reached out, time reached back; She was strong, She was fierce, and there was nothing She loved more than Her brother. He was Her family, Her everything; He had a heart with room to hold the entire world, but Hers only had room for Him. He was Her brother, a precious thing, and She swore to protect Him.

Once upon a time there was a family, and they were separated. The Brother had asked His sister to go and get Him something from a nearby town, and when She returned, it was to find Her brother sealed in a tomb that not even She could break and the one responsible already halfway across the Kingdom.

Once upon a time there was an imprisoned God, and His sister who tried to free Him. She tried, scouring the world desperately, and every time She returned Her brother was a little less there, a little more lost. She searched and She searched and She searched, trying to free Him, trying to save Him, and then a hero was born.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

But we are not here for history, my dear reader. We are here for a story, one that is both already over and yet to start; we are here for a story, and it is one that is found in the past.

We are here for a story, and it is the story of how the God found His Happy Ever After.


End file.
